Poll panel makes voters' photo I-cards mandatory

The Election Commission has ordered deletion of names from the electoral rolls of those voters who have not turned up to get photographed for the Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), officials said in Agartala on Saturday.

"The Election Commission has also asked 12 states in the country to undertake fresh initiatives to photograph those voters who have no EPIC or whose images are not printed in the photo electoral rolls," GSG Ayyangar, chief electoral officer of Tripura, said.

He said the commission has taken up an ambitious plan of photo identity cards for all the voters before the next general election in 2009.

"EPIC coverage is highest in Kerala with 99.03 per cent while 95.35 per cent of the 2.02 million voters in Tripura came under the EPIC scheme," he said.

"Assembly elections will be held in Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh during the end of this year or early next year and production of photo identity cards to establish identity of an elector during casting of votes would be compulsory," Ayyangar added.